Monday, November 4, 2013

The Cleansing of America - A Critical Review

I recently finished reading "The Cleansing of America," by W. Cleon Skousen. This is a repost of my review from Amazon.com, which you can read here.

The Cleansing of America

by W. Cleon Skousen

An awful, unconstitutional endorsement of genocide and theocracy

My god, what a terrible book. I've never seen so many historical
inaccuracies, distortions, and outright lies before in my life. The
author claims that he wants to restore America to its Constitutional
roots, but then the book focuses on how the United States is essentially
unsalvageable at this point and will inevitably collapse in a coming
apocalypse, and he lays out a vague plan for establishing what is
essentially a communist theocracy afterwards, and has the gall to label
it as "Constitutional."

Throughout the entire book, Skousen
frequently endorses the idea of combining church and state, creating a
theocratic government based on "God's Law," even though the U.S.
Constitution is specifically intended to guarantee the separation of
church and state, due to the fact that many European settlers fled to
America to escape the religious persecution of European kings (the
inevitable result of combining religion with government). Skousen also
contradicts himself on whether or not there will be freedom of religion
in this new, post-apocalyptic government. At one point he says that the
society will be open and welcoming only to people who bend the knee and
confess that Jesus is the Christ, and then later saying that the society
will be open to people of all faiths (no mention of atheists), but that
the Mormon church will still act as the head of government, reigning
supreme over everyone and controlling how people are permitted to
interpret "God's Law." This directly contradicts Mormon doctrine in
D&C 134:9, which states "We do not believe it just to mingle
religious influence with civil government [...]." But apparently Skousen only
believes in following the teachings of his church if it fits with his
agenda...

Skousen is also guilty of perpetuating the lie that
Adolf Hitler was an atheist, when all documented and verifiable evidence
clearly indicates that Hitler was Roman Catholic.

In addition to
encouraging ideas which violate the Constitution (and labeling those
ideas as "Constitutional"), Skousen also makes several assertions which
are scientifically and demonstrably wrong, such as saying that AIDS is a
highly contagious disease and can be transmitted via saliva (neither of
which are true), and also condemning homosexuality and implying that
AIDS is God's punishment for immorality, and that everyone with HIV
should be quarantined. Never mind the fact that imposing a quarantine on
such a large segment of the population would be impractical, it's also
unnecessary because AIDS does not qualify as a highly contagious disease
according to the official scientific definition of the term. The HIV
virus can only be transmitted through blood, semen, breast milk, and
vaginal secretions; it cannot be transmitted through saliva. In order
for any disease to be officially and scientifically classified as highly
contagious, that disease must be transmittable simply by close
proximity to or casual contact with an infected person. HIV, which
requires the exchange of bodily fluids, does not meet that
qualification, and therefore cannot be classified as highly contagious.
But scientific truth and accuracy don't seem to be among Skousen's
strong points.

Skousen also goes on to say that because AIDS is
God's punishment for the wicked, we should never look into trying to
find a cure for it or provide treatment for anyone who is infected, and
that we should refuse to support or vote for any politicians who endorse
medical research into HIV as part of their political platform.
Seriously. Skousen actually said we should not conduct medical research
into HIV. What kind of backwater lunatic actually suggests something so
horrible? Apparently Skousen not only hates scientific progress, but he
also hates healing the sick. Christ would be ashamed.

But the
atrocities don't end there. Skousen also makes subtle hints towards
endorsing genocide by saying that there is a constant need to "cleanse"
society of transgressors. At the end there is even a so called prophecy
(based on nothing more than some random person's dream) where an angel
pours a bottle of poison into an ocean, killing everything in it. And
we're supposed to believe that this sort of thing is the will of God?
Apparently Skousen would have us believe that God is a genocidal
maniac...

Skousen also proposes a few bizarre theories, the first
being that not only are the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel still around and
intact as a single group, but that they're actually living under the ice
in the Arctic Circle. Either that or they're in outer space somewhere,
and will come down to Earth via a bridge in the Arctic Circle. Skousen
isn't entirely clear on this point, but either way it's a completely
ridiculous theory.

Another pet theory that Skousen purports (one
that shows up in several of his books, including his most popular title,
"The 5,000 Year Leap") is that the U.S. Constitution and the
organization of the U.S. Government are supposedly based on the
government of the Anglo-Saxons, and that there is some kind of
mysterious connection between the Anglo-Saxons and ancient Israel, who
Skousen claims had almost identical systems of government. Although it
is true that Thomas Jefferson did have an incredible fascination with
the Anglo-Saxons, it's important to remember that the Constitution was
written mostly by James Madison, so it's highly unlikely that the
Founding Fathers drew much, if any, inspiration from the Anglo-Saxons.
And the connection between the Anglo-Saxons and ancient Israel is even
more tenuous, given that the only thing the two societies actually had
in common was that they both organized society by dividing people into a
pyramid-like social structure, with leaders at the top, subordinates
beneath them, and smaller, more manageable groups beneath them. Of
course the fact that almost EVERY society is divided into such a
pyramid-like structure seems to escape Skousen, but that doesn't stop
him from insisting that there's some kind of connection, even though
there is no legitimate evidence to support such a theory.

Skousen
also spends a great deal of time explaining the structure of the Law of
Consecration, or as I like to call it, the Mormon Communism. Now
Skousen openly acknowledges that there are some striking similarities
(almost perfect parallels, in fact) between Communism and the Law of
Consecration, and he also admits that both have failed whenever they
have been attempted. But Skousen insists that the Law of Consecration is
good, and that it only failed because people just aren't good enough to
live by it (which is the exact same excuse that Communists make, by the
way).

One especially disturbing point about Skousen's
hypothetical New World Order is that he blatantly encourages the
violation of the Sixth Amendment by stating that the right to a trial by
a jury should be abolished, and persons accused of crimes would no
longer be permitted to have lawyers to defend them in court. Instead, a
single judge holds all the power and authority of the entire court by
himself, and gets to decide the fate of the accused without regard to
anything or anyone else. That sure doesn't sound like a fair court
system to me, and it's certainly not Constitutional. Yet this is
precisely what Skousen has proposed. The image of the Constitution on
the book's cover apparently serves as nothing more than a mockery to the
document, as almost none of the ideas in this book can rightly be
called Constitutional in the slightest.

On top of that, Skousen even claimed that because immorality supposedly thrives in large cities, government should enact measures to spread the population out over a wider area and force everyone to live in smaller, more manageable towns. That's right – W. Cleon Skousen, the famed Mormon writer and would-be historian who supposedly hated Communism... was an advocate of central planning.

Apparently the destruction of personal freedom and individual liberty are only bad things when they're done by Communists...

As a side note, any
reader (especially those who are members of the LDS church) should be
aware that not only has Brigham Young University (where Skousen taught
as a professor) asked Skousen to recant certain parts of his writings,
so has the leadership of the LDS church. So if you're a Mormon who
believes in the leadership of the church, just keep in mind that said
leadership has told Skousen he's wrong and that he should recant.

If
you're not a member of the Mormon church, then you should know that
virtually none of Skousen's theories or prophecies are based on the
Bible, but rather come almost entirely from the writings of Mormon
leaders and Mormon scriptures, with "The Doctrine and Covenants" being
used as the dominating source of information. If you're a Christian
looking for genuine Biblical prophecy, you will find none here.

Back
in January 2011, Christopher Hitchens wrote a wonderful article for
Vanity Fair titled "Tea'd Off," in which he goes into detail about the
repulsive and virulent racism and bigotry which Skousen's works are
injecting back into society, resulting in the radical, openly hostile
and often violent Tea Party movement. I highly recommend reading it.

Ultimately,
"The Cleansing of America" is a destructive, genocidal, racist,
homophobic, scientifically false piece of quasi-Communist Mormon
propaganda, and society would be better off if this abominable work were
buried and forgotten. I give this book one star, but only because
that's the minimum Amazon reviews will allow. In all honesty, it doesn't
deserve any.